2019 APA Convention

Dear Colleagues:

I am absolutely delighted to share with you the Society of Counseling Psychology (SCP) program for the 2019 American Psychological Association Convention in Chicago! Our program at APA is one of the most important activities of SCP in any given year. It provides us with an opportunity to showcase our best and most cutting-edge work, challenge and learn from each other, mingle and network with colleagues, make new friends, and rekindle our excitement and passion for our field and for our own work. Our convention program is also our face to the world — it is an important expression of our values and commitments, and a reflection of who we are now and what we wish ourselves to be in the future.

The SCP program theme this year came directly from the strategic planning work we were engaged in last year at this time. It is COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY: COMMUNITY, COURAGE, AND CHANGE. A strategic planning process is, by definition, future-oriented, and this theme reflects what emerged as the three most important elements of SCP’s goals and direction for the next five years. COMMUNITY expresses the hope that all society members — with all of their rich demographic diversity and differences of opinion — will find a welcoming and comfortable home in SCP, a home that they return to again and again, because it is the place they feel nurtured and cared for. It is in community and through our strong bonds with one another that we find COURAGE to do the work that the world needs — courage is what gives us the will to live our deeply held counseling psychology values in whatever work we do or whatever setting we are in, and in the face of whatever challenges we encounter. Courage is what gives us strength and strategies to resist and persist, and to bring about CHANGE that will make the world a better place to be — more fair, more just, and more nurturing of all people. Change is what all of our work is about in the end, and it is why we need community and courage to sustain us in our efforts.

Our convention program has been planned to reflect these emphases, and we hope that you find it stimulating, thought-provoking, energizing, professionally helpful, and personally meaningful. Creating a program like this takes a village, and I am deeply grateful to all who contributed to it. I am especially indebted to and impressed by the spectacular work of this year’s Program Co-Chairs, Drs. Pat Grzanka and Joe Miles, whose imagination, infectious enthusiasm, knowledge of our field, attention to detail, flexibility, creativity, patience (mostly with me!), and continued good humor made this an exciting and fun process! I would also like to thank the incoming Program Co-Chairs, Drs. Lamise Shawahin and Dan Walinsky, who were very active participants in this year’s planning and who will be responsible for next year’s program — they have been superb members of the team! I also want to thank this year’s amazing Hospitality Chair, Dr. Julie Koch, whose talent and dedication have produced a beautifully rich, connective hospitality program and her Co-Chairs, Drs. Milo Dodson and Jas Tilghman, whose contributions to this year’s hospitality program have been exceptional, and who will take charge of hospitality at next year’s convention. Finally, I am deeply grateful to all of you who submitted proposals and served as reviewers — it is because of you that we have such an extraordinary program!

I hope that you have a fabulous time in Chicago, that you enjoy connecting with one another, and that you find our program helpful to you in your work. I’ll see you all on Saturday night at the Presidential Party! Let’s celebrate all of us!!

For more information about SCP at the 2019 APA Convention please CLICK HERE.

Warmly,

Ruth E. Fassinger, Ph.D.

President, Society of Counseling Psychology, Division 17 of the American Psychological Association